Monday, March 30, 2015

Erica Garner's father Eric Garner died after a police officer put him in a
chokehold on Staten Island. Eric Garner's death attracted little media
attention as all eyes were on Ferguson, until months later when the
video of his final cry, "I can't breathe," was shared around the world.

Erica Garner leads marches that start after business hours, so the working class folks of
her community can join. They march from the ferry to the Supreme Court, and from the Supreme
Court to the 126th precinct. "Then I walk the back street down
Baystreet, to the actual spot where my father was murdered," said Erica.

Every Tuesday and Thursday at six in the evening
- sometimes folks come, sometimes they don't. "I usually wait for
people for an hour," said Erica. "They come every 15 minutes from the
ferry boat."

Sunday, March 29, 2015

The reason to hire and retain women in a diverse workforce – good for business. Move over argument that it is the right thing to do, now add a partner in the fact that business is better.

Companies are trying to increase the
number of women in executive positions, yet many are struggling to do
so because of a failure to adapt workplace conditions in a way that
ensures qualified women do not drop off the corporate ladder, surveys
show. One of the major ways business needs to address this problem is to change the
working environment itself that discourages women from working to their
full potential, and treats women as outsiders.

Companies with more balanced leadership do a
better job recruiting and retaining talented workers, reducing the
costs associated with replacing top executives. They
also have stronger customer relations because management better reflects
the diversity of society, and they tend to make better business
decisions because a wider array of viewpoints is considered.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who came out as gay
last year, told PBS it was important to hire people who “complement you,
because you want to build a puzzle.”

In an appearance on ABC's This Week with
George Stephanopoulos this morning Indiana Gov. Mike Pence defended the "Religious Freedom"
law which is designed to allow businesses, organizations and individuals
to discriminate against anyone in Indiana if the person discriminating declares it happens on religious grounds.

Lambda Legal explains the truth about the law. Though Gov. Pence says the law is like the one in Illinois, he fails to point out that Illinois has robust
nondiscrimination clauses in its state Human Rights Act that
specifically protect LGBT people. Indiana does not. Different from what Pence claims, this law goes past established law in Indiana, that now someone can sue
even without their religious beliefs having actually been burdened
simply by claiming that is "likely" to happen.

Even though Pence claims otherwise, SB 101 is substantially broader than the federal law. The
federal RFRA can only be invoked against government action. SB 101 goes
much further, inviting discrimination by allowing religious beliefs to
be raised as a defense in lawsuits and administrative proceedings
brought by workers, tenants and customers who have suffered
discrimination as "any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or
central to, a system of religious belief."

According to Richard Brodsky, Indiana went well beyond allowing religious organizations to practice what they want. The law states that they can move those practices into the realm of commerce.

The law extends the
inside-the-church exemption to commercial enterprises. Business
corporations get the same protection that a church gets.

Brodsky continues that if we think we've heard this before, we're right. It's the same argument
used to attack Obamacare in the "Hobby Lobby" lawsuit. That time is was
about insurance coverage for contraception, but the argument was the
same.

And we have also heard a variant in Citizens United, where the
Supreme Court conservative majority said corporations have the same
constitutional free speech rights as do living, breathing people.

He states that this law isn't the least bit traditionally "conservative". It is a radical, un-American, reactionary re-writing of our basic freedoms, engineered by the Tea Party conservatives.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Four sisters, the Browns, have been photographed every year for forty years. We can watch them age year by year, and see that women are as beautiful as they reach their later years as their earlier years.

In our sexist society, we view the sexiest women (even when they are called that by magazines, etc.) as young women, but men in their later years can be deemed the most sexy man alive. Time to change that, if, indeed, we insist on stereotypes to decide who is sexy.

The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest body of Presbyterians in the
country, approved a change in the wording of its constitution to allow
gay and lesbian weddings within the church. This ruling will go into effect on June 21.

The vote could splinter the organization more than it has already. The church has lost 37 percent of its
membership since 1992. Most of the congregations that depart opt to
affiliate with either the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) or
a newer body called A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO
for short). The formality of Tuesday’s decision could accelerate more
departures.

Only hindsight may allow those who disagree to understand the trends of breaking down hierarchies that has persisted in this country for decades. Hierarchies that were once strong look ridiculous to us now, as resisting same sex marriage will look in fifty years.

During the years following the Depression, Americans were told, time and time again, not just
that the country should be a Christian nation, but that it always had
been one. They soon came to think of the United States as “one nation
under God.” They’ve believed it ever since. But it is not true.

Back in the 1930s, business leaders found themselves on the defensive.
Their public prestige had plummeted with the Great Crash; their private
businesses were under attack by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal from
above and labor from below. To regain the upper hand, corporate leaders
fought back on all fronts. They waged a figurative war in statehouses
and, occasionally, a literal one in the streets; their campaigns
extended from courts of law to the court of public opinion. But nothing
worked particularly well until they began an inspired public relations
offensive that cast capitalism as the handmaiden of Christianity.

Read all about it in the New York Times. We're been manipulated by Big Business and hierarchy builders again.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Years ago, when visiting London, we noticed how unusual it seemed that dogs were welcome in upscale Harrod's Department Store. But times have changed.

Here in the United States, we are similarly breaking down the animal/human hierarchy. Recognizing that dogs are members of the family, and possibly understanding that many people won't stop to shop if they have to leave their dogs in a warm car, many local stores and major chains are welcoming dogs.

Barkpost gives us a list of places where you can bring your dog. At the bottom of the article, there is a link to local establishments by region and city. Before you get to that link, there are nineteen major store chains clearly listed with a picture of each.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

A man in China found a stray dog laying in the parking place he wanted to occupy with his car. The man got out of the car and kicked the dog to get the dog to move.

Surprised was the man, when the dog returned with a pack and chewed up his car, causing damage to the body of the car and the windshield wipers.

As our hierarchies are falling, one involves how we treat animals. Many of us support the fact that animals can be great friends and have emotions that they share with us freely. And they are very smart, and valuable as part of our world.

Monday, March 9, 2015

The speech today by University of Oklahoma president David Boren blasting the SAE fraternity for an obviously well-practiced chant about lynching and exclusion of African-Americans in their fraternity brought these words:

“You have violated all we stand for. You
should not have the privilege of calling yourselves ‘Sooners. We
vow that we will be an example to the entire country of how to deal with
his issue. There must be zero tolerance for racism everywhere in our
nation.”

“Effective immediately, all ties and affiliations between this
University and the local SAE chapter are hereby severed.” The students involved will have to
make their own housing arrangements after that, Boren said at a Monday
news conference, during which he declared: “We don’t provide student services for bigots.”

Those hierarchies - weakening as we watch, every day. We are at a critical mass to come together to bring Hierarchies a capital H down in the United States and in the world.

President Obama made a stirring speech at Selma this weekend, on the 50th anniversary of that historic march that brought our nation one step closer to bringing down the race hierarchy.

As we put holes in so many hierarchies in this country - race, gender, physical ability, animals to humans, sexual orientation, etc., we can appreciate Obama's words that remind us that patriotism is realistically recognizing where we have been, where we are, and where we have to go.

Obama points out that in America, what greater form of patriotism is there than when, "we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive
generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our
power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest
ideals?"

As we keep breaking down our hierarchies, we are inching one step at a time to building the country most of us envision.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

At least in one species, older females are valued for their accumulated knowledge and wisdom.

Researchers have determined that female killer whales become key leaders in their pods after they age out of fertility.

We can trace many of our problems in our society to male top-of-the-hierarchy attitudes and behaviors. Just look at political cartoons and see that the "establishment" is almost always depicted as older white males. We all know who they are.

Time for them to move over and let women have a crack at a bigger role in running this country.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The Emmanuel College has decided it will not longer compete in athletics with Gordon College, a Christian college in Boston who is trying to obtain a religious exemption that would allow it to discriminate due to sexual orientation.

On July 1, 2014, Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay signed a letter to President Obama asking to be released from obligation to hire federal contractors not allowed to discrimination in hiring practice on the basis of sexual orientation.

Emmanuel athletic director Pam Roecker decided that
Emmanuel will no longer compete
against Gordon College in any sport, as it goes against the mission of Emmanuel.

Breaking down the sexual orientation hierarchy one step at a time, by not participating in it.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Four in ten transgender teens in the United States attempt suicide. Zay Crawford and her family share her story to help the rest of us accept and understand that other people's journeys might not be like ours, but they are just fine.

The beauty of a diverse world is that we all can learn about and share the lives of others. Getting rid of hierarchies allows us to live life to the fullest and not judge other's paths.

Over three million people have watched this video:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153656122689698&fref=nf

Here is a wonderful story of a Zay, who lives in the Cincinnati area. She and her parents have chosen to share their journeys.